Welcome to episode 2039 of the Italian Wine Podcast, Wine, Food & Travel With Marc Millon. Today, he is interviewing Salvatore Avallone of Villa Matilde More about today’s winery: In the 1960s, Francesco Paolo Avallone, a lawyer with a personal passion for ancient wines, read about 'Falernum' wine by ancient Roman politician Plinius and the ancient Roman poets Vergilius and Marziale. Intrigued by the Horace's poems, he decided to revive the legendary wine that disappeared at the beginning of the last century. Believing in the potential of this land, he started viticulture to revive the high quality wines of 2000 years ago and founded Villa Matilde, then "Villa Matilde Avallone". The characteristics of ancient Falerno wines: rich, powerful and fiery. The most famous wine in classical literature came back to life in the 1970s in the vineyards of Villa Matilde, which stretches across the hills on the slopes of Mount Roccamonfina. Today, the winery has been taken over by Francesco Paolo's son Salvatore and daughter Maria-Ida: a new chapter in which Villa Matilde, born from the land of Falerno, tells the identity of Campania, a rich land called "Campania Felix" in ancient Rome. Connect: Website: www.villamatilde.it  Instagram: villamatildeavallone  LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/villa-matilde/  Facebook:  www.facebook.com/villamatildeavallone  Twitter: villamatil71901  More about the host Marc Millon: Marc Millon, VIA Italian Wine Ambassador 2021, has been travelling, eating, drinking, learning and writing about wine, food and travel for nearly 40 years. Born in Mexico, with a mother from Hawaii via Korea and an anthropologist father from New York via Paris, he was weaned on exotic and delicious foods. Marc and his photographer wife Kim are the authors of 14 books including a pioneering series of illustrated wine-food-travel books: The Wine Roads of Europe, The Wine Roads of France, The Wine Roads of Italy (Premio Barbi Colombini), and The Wine Roads of Spain. Other titles include The Wine and Food of Europe, The Food Lovers’ Companion Italy, The Food Lovers’ Companion France, Wine, a global history. Marc regularly lectures and hosts gastronomic cultural tours to Italy and France with Martin Randall Travel, the UK’s leading cultural travel specialist. He is soon to begin a regular series on Italian Wine Podcast, ‘Wine, food and travel with Marc Millon’. When not on the road Marc lives on the River Exe in Devon, England Connect: quaypress.uk/ marcmillon.co.uk vino.co.uk quaypress.com LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/marc-millon-50868624 Twitter: @Marc_Millon _______________________________ Let's keep in touch! Follow Italian Wine Podcast on our social media channels: Instagram www.instagram.com/italianwinepodcast/  Facebook www.facebook.com/ItalianWinePodcast  Twitter www.twitter.com/itawinepodcast  Tiktok www.tiktok.com/@mammajumboshrimp  LinkedIn www.linkedin.com/company/italianwinepodcast  If you feel like helping us, donate here www.italianwinepodcast.com/donate-to-show/ Until next time, Cin Cin! Thanks for listening! -  This show is all about food and wine pairings, and traveling through Italy with Marc. Join his food, wine and cultural journey!